Saratoga Aronson Torah Dedication Sun. Oct 27, 2013 4 pm
Procession from the Henry St. Library, up Caroline St., to Chabad 130 Circular St.
Celebrating Jewish Pride on the 100th Anniversary of the Infamous Trial, and the Oct. 28, 1913 Acquittal of Mendel Beilis, who later visited & died in Saratoga Info: Saratora@gmail.com
Kiev brick factory manager, Menachem Mendel Beilis was arrested in a Blood Libel, charged with killing 13 year old Andrei Yushinsky, and imprisoned for 26 months. 200 newsmen from around the world followed the infamous 33 day trial.
“Russia’s Sherlock Holmes” Nikolai Krasovsky found that Vera Cheberiak and a troika of her friends actually killed Yushinsky. Paying dearly for his honesty, Krasovsky was prosecuted by the government and lost his post.
A loose woman and criminals’ hostess, Vera Cheberiak was Russia’s state witness against Beilis. When Vera’s son Zhenia tried to tell investigators what he knew, Vera treacherously covered his mouth with kisses, testifying falsely in his name after he died.
Wearing prison garb, Beilis holds his second indictment as he leaves the court. The first indictment was dropped after Russian legislators concluded there was no chance of conviction on such a flimsy basis. The second was issued when legislators found it too embarrassing to drop the case after Beilis’ lengthy imprisonment and extensive investigation. Members of the jury were chosen for their “ignorant nature” and “ethnic enmity” to tip the balance toward injustice. The verdict was ambiguous: Beilis was acquitted, yet it implied Yushinsky was the victim of ritual murder. Despite the mixed verdict, the Beilis Trial was a conspiracy of power and hate exposed by the truth.
An imperial Duma Member and key conspirator to frame Mendel Beilis, Gregory Zamyslovsky disguised his Anti-semitism by targeting the ChabadLubavitch Schneersons with ritual murder.
The Justices led by Fyodor Boldyrev (with forked beard).
Jury members listen to the prosecution’s claims against Beilis.
Russsian Interior Minister Nikolai Maklakov allocated money to bribe witnesses, and illegally monitored the jury deliberations.
The Beilis family left Russia, lived a while in Jaffa, then moved to NY.
Catholic priest Justin Pranaitis claimed to be an expert Hebraist, but the defense lawyers unmasked him as a fraud.
The court in session: Beilis is seated in the dock with his Defense Attorneys. The Prosecutors and Justices sit across the room.
Mendel Beilis under guard during the trial. After two years of being subject to appalling conditions in prison, the start of the trial came as a relief to Beilis.
Guarded by the Czarist Police, Mendel Beilis sits in the dock.
Pay heed and attention to this site: Here lies a holy person, a chosen man The Kiev people made him a victim and upon all Israel spread the travail, Falsely accusing him & his community of taking blood of a Christian child. They bound him in chains deep in a pit For years he saw not the light of day On behalf of Israel was he tortured. Pay tribute to this pure and innocent soul Who dwells in the shadow of the L-rd
The Defense Team: Dmitry Grigorovich-Barsky, Oscar Gruzenberg, prominent Jewish Kiev attorneys; Nikolay Karabhevsky, S. Petersburg Council of Barristers chairman; and Alexander Zarudny.
The Rebbe Rashab and R. Levi Y. Schneerson contributed to this stack of books for the defense. Refuting the state prosecution’s “experts,” Moscow’s Rabbi Mazeh delivered a resounding defense of Jewish values. Celebrity Mendel Beilis found himself no source of livelihood or peace of mind. An appeal to help the destitute Beilis family asks people to buy Beilis’ $3
Mendel Beilis died July 4 in Saratoga Springs in 1934, and is buried in Mt. Carmel, Queens (near Leo Frank who was lynched 1915 in Georgia for supposedly killing a gentile girl). 4,000 people attended his eulogy and funeral in Lower Manhattan’s Eldridge St. Synagogue.
Credits: “Blood Accusation” by Maurice Samuels, Chabad.org and Eli Rubin